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Expedición Malaspina 2010
Circumnavigation Expedition: Global Change and Exploring Global Ocean Biodiversity
The Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition is a project led by the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC).
It started on the 15th of December 2010 with the departure of the oceanographic research vessel the Hespérides from the port of Cádiz. A team of 400 researchers spent 7 months on board this ship and its companion vessel, the Sarmiento de Gamboa exploring ocean biodiversity and studying the impact of climate change on the ocean’s ecosystem. The expedition’s general objectives also include combining research with educating and informing society, encouraging young people to consider science as a career, and giving leadership to cooperation platforms to raise the profile of oceanography. The overarching goal is to give fresh momentum to marine science in Spain.
The expedition’s scientist took samples from 250 points across the ocean at depths of down to 5.000 metres. They also took continous gas and compound samples from air and water at the sea’s surface. Of the two ships, only the Hespérides completed the globe circumnavigation, as the Sarmiento de Gamboa took a detailed cross section of the Atlantic Ocean along the 24th parallel north, the so-called Columbus route, which is of considerable interest to climatologists. On its return, the Sarmiento de Gamboa hosted a ‘floating university’, teaching a Master’s degree in Oceanography.